No populist measure as Kerala budget focuses on infra push

Kerala finance minister KN Balagopal presented the financial outlay of the state for FY 2025-26 on Friday, seeking to mop up revenue by mobilising measures through tax hikes on land and vehicles, push the accelerator on building infrastructure and steering clear of populist measures ahead of local body elections this year and the assembly polls next year.

- Vishnu Varma

KOCHI:

In an address that lasted over two-and-a-half hours, Balagopal, presenting the last full budget of the second Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF government, painted the picture of a state that has "overcome the trying times of severe fiscal constraints" and attributed the failure to pay DA arrears to state government employees and pensioners in the past to the curtailment of the state's borrowing limits and the reduction in the divisible pool of taxes.

Yet, despite the claimed improvement in the fiscal health, the finance minister shied away from increasing the social welfare pensions, currently disbursed to around six million people, and constituting a wage revision committee for the state government employees despite being an election year.